Primal Journal - Blackberrypie

Thought it would be time to stop lurking. In my defense they have been productive lurks. I have found out all about Primal, the differing views on the carb curve, how much fruit and how many handfuls of nuts can be defined as good and Gay Panda's journal which I am reading with avid absorbtion (I only discovered it a couple of days ago however and haven't got very far in - don't reveal any plot twists)

I have been wandering around MDA in wonderment since September 2012. I can't remember how I arrived here, maybe a little like a traveller from somewhere who arrives in a land full of things quite different to his own. The means of arrival ceases to matter in the whirl of continual discovery. Since first arriving I have aimed to live as primally as possible. I have to admit that it has not always been easy and certainly the percentage of primal v. regular eating has slipped below the 80/20 ratio several times.

Again, I seem to be doing things in the wrong order. Allow me to share where I've come from so we can travel on together from the same point of reference. I am 29, female and 6ft2'. I have no idea what I weigh but back in the summer it was around 14+ stone. I have leaned out a tiny bit since Sept but not much so let us assume I am still around 14 stone (196 pounds approx.)

Around 5 years ago I was at my heaviest of 16.5 stone and was suffering with a lot of stomach pain (something I have had most of my life to varying degrees). The doctor diagnosed me with IBS and suggested I do an exclusion diet. I started with wheat as I seemed to get the symptoms of pain and bloating in the afternoons after my lunchtime sandwich (made with thick slices of grainy bread). It was not easy as the house I lived in with 2 friends was very heavy on the wheat. We would have pasta, pizza, bread, cakes, biscuits, breaded things and thick sauces made with flour. This time was probably my most unhealthy eating. I came from a family who cooked everything fresh, my father did and does grow most of thier vegetables and a lot of the meals were a chunk of meat with several vegetables on the side. To go from this to frozen ready meals and a cupboard full of "treats" which were mainly biscuits made my symptoms even worse.

I cut out all of the wheat for 2 weeks. It made such a difference and suddenly I could start to see how badly it had been affecting me. I made the decision to cut out wheat from my diet permenantly and have been off it ever since. I had a couple of incidences with accidentally eating it which were not pleasant (a surprising number of people say to me that I am probably ok with it now as I have bee off it so long... Not true!) I ate some regular pasta a little while ago, just half a bowl, and was in agony for the whole night. Nothing tastes as good as to be worth all the internal torture that it will cause. Just cutting out wheat helped me go down to just over 13 stone at my lightest and I dropped 4 dress sizes. This was an added bonus, I was just glad to get rid of the pain!

My issue now is that, with my introduction to Paleo/Primal, I have seen the next step. I cut out all grains for the last month and have noticed a marked improvement in my digestion. I now feel that it may be all gluten that affects me, not just wheat. Along with getting rid of legumes, attempting to follow the FODMAPS list and discovering the "Fibre Menace" I am feeling better than I can ever remember.

Sorry, that should have been "was" feeling better. Christmas has come and gone in a conveyor belt of food and I have limited will power on these occasions. I still remained completely wheat free as my family are on board with that and really make an effort to provide lovely things for me. The trouble is I hadn't introduced the idea of gluten-free, dairy-free (didn't mention that I feel better without dairy too), low carb or low sugar. The last few days have been full of chocolate, wine, huge mounds of potatoes, lots of cream, milk, butter, sugar and non-FODMAPS type things. Last night was one of my most uncomfortable in a while. I feel I have swallowed a beach ball. I feel stuffed, puffy, gassy and blocked. I slept badly and can't wait to get back to eating things I know will be good for me.

This brings me to my plan, my reason for coming out of the shadows and starting a journal. I have decided to do it as fully s is humanly possible for a month and see what changes I can make. The thing is, I want to kick-start myself and see what I can achieve in the way of experimentation before then settling into a Paleo that is long-term and sustainable for me. Therefore, January will be my month to try Nutritional Ketosis. I have been low-carb for a couple of months, along with cutting out legumes and most gluten but would like to see what I can achieve from a mainly protein and fat diet. I have been dialling down the vegetables for a few weeks (It's hard to get rid of the little voice that tells you greens are good for you) and have mostly just been having spinach, kale, watercress and rocket. These have been combined with lots of pork belly, chops, chicken thighs, salmon, prawns and coconut milk. I have also been eating lots of cashew nuts, blueberries, avocados and dark chocolate. I have tried to incorporate more spices into my cooking, mainly creating some sort of green thai curry.

For January I would like to cut out all vegetables apart from the spinach and have that cooked rather than raw as I find it easier to digest. I would like to use the opportunity to cook with a greater variety of meats including oxtail, liver, heart and a bigger range of fish. I want to cut out all sugar, including fruit, as it is my biggest stumbling block. This also means cutting out alcohol which won't be easy at all as I have a friend's 30 birthday on the 19th Jan.

My main reason for doing this is to heal my digestion. The last few weeks have been an eye-opener to what my digestion could be if I commited fully to this way of eating. I have been taking extra-strength probiotics and a dose of L-Glutamine every morning after reading about the benefits on MDA and I have noticed an improvement. This is despite all the additional alcohol from christmas parties. Weight loss would be good too. I can't pretend that I don't look at some of the success stories without a touch of ab-envy! I've never had abs. I went from squidgy baby to squidgy child to quite a lot squidgier teen and even more squidge covered adult. It would be nice to have less squidge although when I try and imagine it I can't. It seems the impossible dream. Maybe 2013 will be the year I find an ab....

Fear of failure looms large but I hope that this journal will give me the strength to not give up and go back to the easy, sugar-filled world I have been inhabiting. As they keep saying all over Whole9life.com, it is only 30 days.... Then I can see what the rest of my life will be like.

"Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow."
Doug Firebaugh

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself."
Hecato, Greek philosopher

Take the first step.
Even if you cannot see the whole staircase,
Just take the first step.
~MLK, Jr

Day off from work yesterday which mainly involved sleeping and recovering from Christmas. Decided to give a longer IF a go (usually do one from dinner the previous evening, around 7pm, to lunch the following day, around noon) Had eaten around 7pm on the 26th and decided to just carry on the IF until I felt I wanted something. Drank lots of water and then broke the fast with some dark chocolate at around 4pm. Not ideal but my logic was to get it out of the house before January and there is NO WAY I am throwing/gifting dark chocolate! Ate nothing else for the rest of the day. Felt a lot better from having given my digestion a bit of a rest and appreciated the lack of bloat this morning.

Working today which usually means fasting until lunch but as I hadn't had dinner I wanted something before work. I grabbed a small bag of macadamias and cranberries which I ate on my journey to work. Otherwise have just had water and herbal (fruity) tea. Lunch is spinach and prawns in coconut milk with herbs and spices (Waitrose frozen Thai Mix - ingredients: Coriander leaf (19%), ginger (19%), lemongrass (19%), shallots (19%), garlic (9.5%), lime leaf (9.5%), red chilli pepper (5%)) followed by the rest of the cranberries and macadamias.

Have a sugar withdrawal headache and feel that the Low Carb Flu is on it's way....

After battling with the headache all afternoon I decided that decent protein and fat were the only things that were going to help. Dinner therefore consisted of a large, beautifully marbled sirloin cooked in coconut oil with a 4 egg omlette (seasoned with chilli flakes and black pepper) on the side. Finished with toasted coconut (I don't feel I've finished eating until I've had something sweet... It's a problem I'm trying to kick). Now feel full and sleepy but very glad I didn't cave in to the sugar.

Last edited by blackberrypie; 12-28-2012 at 12:11 PM.

"Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow."
Doug Firebaugh

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself."
Hecato, Greek philosopher

Take the first step.
Even if you cannot see the whole staircase,
Just take the first step.
~MLK, Jr

Excuse the look of shock.... I just bought a pair of scales and weighed myself for the first time in a long time. The results? 14st 10.4. In lbs? 206.4. Errrrrgggghhhhh!!!! In my defence (seem to say that frequently at the moment) I am 6ft 2" but still not a weight I should be.

Let's see what a low carb 100% Paleo WOE does to it.

"Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow."
Doug Firebaugh

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself."
Hecato, Greek philosopher

Take the first step.
Even if you cannot see the whole staircase,
Just take the first step.
~MLK, Jr

I realise that I wasn't going to officially start my low-carb protein & meat heavy approach until Jan 1st but I thought I would get some practice in now. Also, I went food shopping and stocked up on some delicious meat from the local butcher.

IF until around 2:30pm - fast broken with duck breast fillets and anchovies pan fried in goose fat. Whipped up a 4 egg omlette and cooked that in the remaining fat.

Snacked on a bag of toasted coconut and had several cups of sweet fennel tea throughout the afternoon (along with the usual 2+ litres of water). Finished with a thick cut pork chop cooked in goose fat at around 8:30pm. Quite late but will see what affect it has on tomorrow's IF.

"Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow."
Doug Firebaugh

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself."
Hecato, Greek philosopher

Take the first step.
Even if you cannot see the whole staircase,
Just take the first step.
~MLK, Jr

Felt "heavy" today - too full and bloated. Went for a long walk to get some fresh air and vitamin D which helped a little. Lunch of 6 boiled eggs dipped in EVOO and rock salt at around 1:30. Spent the afternoon feeling even heavier - almost as though everything was sitting just under my ribs. Dinner around 6pm of beef meatballs in coconut milk (cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin and black pepper in the meatballs, waitrose thai mix in the coconut broth along with a big handful of fresh coriander). Again, uncomfortable full feeling but had a slice of lemon in hot water which helped the symptoms considerably. Maybe helped with the stomach's acidity levels or to break down the fat?

"Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow."
Doug Firebaugh

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself."
Hecato, Greek philosopher

Take the first step.
Even if you cannot see the whole staircase,
Just take the first step.
~MLK, Jr

Such is a human's ability to justify anything.... And to give in to peer pressure.

New Year's Eve lunch with a couple of friends. The plan was to stick with no/low carbs, no alcohol and no sugar. Fell by the wayside with 2 glasses of Prosecco with lunch (peer pressure). Lunch was semi ok as it was a whole lobster in garlic & lemon butter, a small green salad and a small portion of fries. This was then followed by a slice of gluten free chocolate and hazelnut loaf, a cafe mocha and a small bar of dark chocolate.

Have probably set myself back again on the sugar quitting but had a really nice lunch and am looking at it as the final celebration meal before the January reset (this is the justification at work!).

Bit of a dodgy stomach this afternoon though - wondering whether eggs agree with me so maybe cut them out for a week or so and see what happens.

"Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow."
Doug Firebaugh

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself."
Hecato, Greek philosopher

Take the first step.
Even if you cannot see the whole staircase,
Just take the first step.
~MLK, Jr

Also had a slice of butter as I wanted something more but wasn't sure what!

Had a very bad stomach this morning so went out and bought some coconut water and apple cider vinegar. Had the coconut water with breakfast then, later, had some apple cider vinegar with lemon in hot water. Surprisingly delicious so had a couple more throughout the day. Stomach was fine for the rest of the day but is now starting to get a little gurgly and feels as though it is starting to bloat. Don't know if this is due to the eggs, the butter or the chop. Have finished the eggs now so will cut them out for a while. Will also cut out the butter. One more chop left from that batch which I will have tomorrow evening and see what happens.

Back to work tomorrow so will be IFing til noon.

"Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow."
Doug Firebaugh

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself."
Hecato, Greek philosopher

Take the first step.
Even if you cannot see the whole staircase,
Just take the first step.
~MLK, Jr

Managed to make it through the day with no sugar which was a struggle as not only did I have cravings and withdrawal symptoms (including quite a big headache) but someone in the office produced a large tub of Celebrations. The pull of the Snickers was strong....

Otherwise this is what I ate:

IF until 12pm
Lunch of prawns in coconut milk with Waitrose thai mix and lots of fresh coriander
Dinner at 8pm of some anchovies, a few spoonsful of the chicken korma made for tomorrow's lunch, a pork chop, some flaked almonds and about 200g coconut (bumped up today's carb count with that)

Drinks were pretty much all herbal teas and had one ACV in hot water with dinner.

Body-wise I have a headache and a stiff neck/shoulders. Also really feeling the lack of sugar. Hoping that the symptoms are the withdrawal/low carb flu and that I'm not getting ill. Stomach has been ok today, little bit of bloat/gurgling but not too bad.

"Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow."
Doug Firebaugh

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself."
Hecato, Greek philosopher

Take the first step.
Even if you cannot see the whole staircase,
Just take the first step.
~MLK, Jr